It’s well known that Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida are close friends and supposedly wouldn’t fight each other. But when Dana White was asked recently if he thought they would ever agree to fight, he said he believed they would under the right conditions.
This sparked a firestorm of criticism. People were outraged that Dana would “force” friends to fight.
But that’s nonsense. Nobody forcing anyone to fight. This is a sport. And a business.
Mike Tyson once said, if friends can make each other a lot of money by fighting, well that’s what friends are for.
Which could be why Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett, two of the best heavyweight mixed martial artists on the planet, will put aside their friendship and fight each other.
Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett are very tight. Several times today during the press conference, they referred to each other as good friends. Fedor even called Josh a “true friend.” There is a genuine affection between the two warriors.
But on the night of August first, their friendship will be temporarily put aside. For five rounds or less, the two modern day gladiators will be seeking to destroy each other. One will be victorious. Both will still be friends.
I believe that Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva would also put aside their friendship for a few rounds and a lot of money. And to see who really is the best. That’s what friends are for.
During the Q&A I asked both Josh and Fedor about how it felt to fight a friend. You can check it out on the video.
I'm not 100% comfortable that the fans get the best fight possible when friends fight each other, especially in the case of Fedor, who is VERY money and career/reputation conscious, not to mention seemingly "connected". You think his camp would be ok with Barnett if Fedor lost?
I used to fight my best friend when I was a kid on a regular basis to see who would pay the bar tab later that night. And usually people would watch us and buy us drinks anyway. LOL. I never saw a problem with it, it's fun, not life or death.
I still think anytime you see friends or guys who train or have trained together fight each other at an event, it can tend to change the fight, sometimes makes it look a little more like a sparring match, almost like there's an understanding between the two that nobody wants to hurt the other too bad. Not that it's a work or that they don't fight, but it can legitimately affect the fight. It also depends on the individual fighter's style to some degree. You can box a friend and grapple a friend, becuase in reality, the physical risks don't seem all that high, but I don't know how much of your heart you can really put into yanking your friend's head down and bashing his face with your knee as hard as you can. So maybe that is where Anderson Silva is coming from.
Who cares? The Diaz and Miller brothers kick the shit out of each other every day for free. If you have to make yourself hate someone to fight them, you are a punk. This is a sport, not a gang war.
K-Dub-"T" - Fedor and Josh don't speak the same language and never train together. They had vodka together once. lol. Not even close to the same thing.
Fedor himself has said that he and Barnett are great friends and that Josh is closer to him than his own brother.
IrishFighter110 - Completely agree garv. Well put.
Ed Soares said they will only do it for 100 million. They are not brothers for fuck sake. They havent trained together their wholes lives. No offense to Anderson but he needs to snap back to reality and realise this is the fight game. Its makes sense now why he overeacted to Wands move to 185 when he called it pretentious.
completely different, Fedor and Josh dont train together